Vol 59 No 15 | SOMALIAEUROPEAN UNION Farmajo's Brussels win 27th July 2018 At the meeting of donor countries in Brussels on 17 July, the European Commission pledged €200 million to President Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed 'Farmajo's' government. The agreem...
Vol 59 No 13 | ETHIOPIASOMALIA A proconsul retires 29th June 2018 The leading representative of the Ethiopian security services in Somalia, Colonel Gebregziabher Alemseged, better known in Somalia as Colonel Gebre, has been recalled. Since 2002 C...
Vol 59 No 11 | SOMALIA Shabaab takes to the air 1st June 2018 Far from being on the brink of defeat, Al Shabaab is improving its propaganda and still holding its own on the military front Al Shabaab's leader, Abu Ubaydah, made a major speech on jihadist broadcast media on 18 May marking the beginning of Ramadan and setting out his political stall, scotching rumours ...
Vol 59 No 10 | SOMALIA Proxies, powers, and presidents 8th May 2018 Qatar and the UAE, along with a host of bit players, fought their latest battle in Somalia over whose man got to be the new Speaker of Parliament Months of vicious intrigue centring on the rivalry between the United Arab Emirates and its declared enemy, Qatar, ended on 30 April when Mohamed Mursal Abdirahman became the new S...
Vol 59 No 7 | SOMALIA Funds for all the family 6th April 2018 Parliament is at odds with the executive. Cash is coursing through the chamber as proxies of foreign states fight for supremacy Until mid-February, Mogadishu's parliament had been in recess while the government went about its business. So controversial was the business that Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire...
Vol 59 No 6 | SOMALIA Mogadishu fires broadside at UAE 15th March 2018 The government's expulsion of an important Gulf company is the latest example of growing commercial and security rivalries in the Horn The vote by Somalia's parliament on 12 March to expel the state-owned United Arab Emirates company DP World in protest against its $442 million deal to build a new port at Berbera,...
Vol 59 No 1 | SOMALIA Cracks in the federal system 12th January 2018 Farmajo is swamped by an ocean of political problems, and victory over Al Shabaab will be no closer this year No one could have predicted that Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed 'Farmajo' would have lost so much popularity, and become so dictatorial less than a year after becoming president. He is m...
Vol 58 No 23 | SOMALIA Buried in the wreckage 17th November 2017 The 14 October bomb is still causing aftershocks, exposing fault lines in the government's approach and a lack of political purpose Al Shabaab's atrocity in Mogadishu on 14 October – the number of dead was recently updated to over 450 – is shedding light on some of Somalia's many contradictions. One...
Vol 58 No 22 | SOMALIA Both sides double down 23rd October 2017 The government is launching a new offensive, with US military backing, against Al Shabaab's strongholds in the wake of last weekend's truck bomb in the capital The first response to the government's declaration of a 'state of war' against Al Shabaab on 21 October was a roadside bomb killing seven people, mostly women, in a minibus at Dani...
Vol 58 No 18 | SOMALIA The split that never was 8th September 2017 Instead of weakening Al Shabaab, the defection of top jihadist Mukhtar Robow could intensify the war How Mukhtar Robow Ali 'Abu Mansur', one of Somali Islamism's most prominent leaders, crossed to the government side is clear enough. He surrendered himself to Hassan Hussein Mohame...
